Status International

I did some casting about for additional stamp sources.  I joined two more auction houses that specialise in collectibles. On the day I joined Status International they were  holding a stamp auction that I was not prepared for however at the end a number of items were passed in, so I bought a group of old albums. It has taken four weeks for the parcel to be delivered from Sydney. The box was heavy at around 15Kg and included 11 large albums. That's a lot of stamps, just over 12,000 actually. So I bought them for 2c each.  Some people go about it differently like the guy who put every stamp he ever found in the album including many duplicates. Not only that but you can't see them properly because they are all overlapping. 

They used 110 stamps to post this box

90 of the same stamp on one page

This person used biros to rule red and blue boxes

This one crammed 10 copies of each overlapped.

I will dismantle all these but preserve how they did it in my stamp database. 

Blog Stats & Jig Saws

My Blog has slowly increased in readership.  As a rule a blog is supposed to have a consistent theme aimed at a particular audience but this one is more your open diary with a theme of what happened today.  So not necessarily appealing to the masses. Nevertheless the primary statistic went past 25,000 hits today in the years since I started it.  I have read some blogs and never been back to them so I expect there is a lot of that in these numbers.  I wouldn't mind getting the monthly rate up to 1000.

I finished my map puzzle a couple of days back so it took around 2 weeks. I think 2000 pieces is the most I can handle but even in these cabin fever days I might give jig saws a rest for a while.

this billiard table cover has a fine coat of blue dust from the newness of 2000 pieces

Bicycle meal on wheels

We have been running down the space in our freezer drawer in order to try the local cafe take away service.  The Bungalow cafe also has a freezer which they have filled with their own creations and as is often the case, their single portions are plenty big enough for two, especially if you add some toast and soup or other hash browns etc. I rode my Drysdale circuit and checked out their freezer. I bought one only of the meatballs & spaghetti serving to try it out but stuffing the frozen pack down my bike shorts did not work out.  I twirled the flimsy bag around the handlebars and made it home without losing any. Meals on Wheels.

This path is almost ready 

New shoreline

Haven't been down to the beach for a week so when the Sun came out this afternoon I took a quick tour.  The tide was up and looked to be at its highest. I had the beach to myself but according to current rules you are not supposed to stop.  It seems the new step that was cut halfway up the beach is now the new shoreline at least at the very high tides.  There was no rubbish anywhere. The only thing I picked up was a single cigarette butt.  I have included a photo of a kid on a post doing some Zen movements. Nothing escapes attention here and if you don't want to be on the internet don't hang around here.

He took his helmet off to do this

A lot of sand has been smoothed out

Monster Fern

We had a crash during the night but it wasn't a bump in the night as we did not hear anything about it.  In the morning we could see one of the stag ferns was now on the ground.  It had pulled a large screw from the railing. Behind it was a hoya that we could now conveniently remove from the fence allowing it to breath and dry out a bit more.  I put two hooks back into the fence which are now bearing the weight of this thing.  It was a struggle to get it back in place particularly with a cloud of spores  being ejected from each horn.

Crash landing

Staggering

Forest of horns

Autumn Clean

Half the day was spent dusting and vacuuming which can take around three hours here so you would think that was enough exercise for one day but we just had to get out side for even a short walk just to take some air.   The beaches further along have closed signs on them due to virus activity but ours does not for some reason.  I have also included a sunset photo from the other day. It is sunset season at the moment with the sun half way on its march Northward.  This gives us the best angle across the water for photos. These were unusual with a sliver of sky between the cloud and the horizon.

Oliverian

One of the things about picking olives is finding someone who likes them. Not to mention getting up in the tree, hanging off branches, balancing off of ladders, eye poking and generally getting scratched up.  Despite all that I have improved my technique by suspending a bucket in the tree with me for easier depositing of picked olives. As for their destination the neighbours across the road who were not here last year, do like olives. Hooray, there goes another three kilograms worth and we got a jar of homemade chutney in return. That leaves another three kilograms from today's batch to give away.

6 kilograms

Prickly Moses

Why do plants have to be prickly?  Then give you a rash to be going on with.  We have some plants out the front that need more attention than we have been giving them.  After the usual 45 minutes or so of mowing I got out the hedge trimmer and cut a swath through a bush overhanging the front wall. It was like that two yar ago when we arrived here and has been a pain when trying to mow next to the wall. As well I took to a plant nearer the front door which was starting to block off the view. This one is a prickly beast. The bin is over flowing so I will have to return to it as I can see a row of garden lights completely obscured down in its depths.

This wall hasn't seen the light for years

1500 pieces done 500 to go

To Say Nothing of the Dog

Being one of the Hugos, I have had this book on my list for some time. It was the winner in 1999 but the prequel of sorts was written back in 1888.  This Hugo is so clever it does your head in but then time travel often does.  The sequence of how I arrived at this book is my own 'Twilight Zone' moment.  I have previously written up a post on the 1888 prequel 'Three men in a Boat to say nothing of the Dog'.  I bought that book without knowing anything about it or its later relevance to the Hugo awards.   It was only until I started reading the Connie Willis book a month later that I made the connection.  It is important to read the Jerome K Jerome book first then the Connie Willis book second.

This book is a madcap riot and as usual with time travel you need to pay attention.  It gets you chuckling along the way and has captured the mayhem of three men in a boat.  I have not yet found another Hugo which is 80% comedy and 20% Science Fiction.  Now I have to go find 'Have Spacesuit will travel' and also 'The Moonstone'.

PS A bird stump vase is a particularly ugly type of pedestal decoration from the Victorian era.

Morning Sun

Took advantage of some morning Sun with a short ride around Drysdale. I veered off my normal path into an estate that I hadn't checked out before. It butts up against paddocks at the back of the supermarkets and there is no way thru. I did find a sneaky footpath between houses that I had not noticed before, so made my escape that way.   The clouds have come in now and I doubt if we will be getting to the beach again til next Summer. 

Asher drives the train

Good bike track in new estate

Asher Mad Hatter

We have made the trip for some Asher sitting but on the way dropped off all the olive plunder at the Taylors as well as a bag of  mini peppers.  Let's see what they can do with that lot. We saw some servos with fuel for 90c a litre. Unreal. It is 3 o'clock and Asher is having her nap which so far has been longer than the nap I just had. You name it and we have played it. Many books have also been read including a deja vu moment where some 30 yar old Where's Wally books have made a comeback.  The last effort before sleep was 30 minutes of hat swapping.

Easter Bonnet

MadCap Asher

The inscription says 'To James a fifth birthday present from his friend Tim Joiner.'

Sunny Rest day

We are having a rest day today after yesterdays exertions in the garden whereby the plants are all in and also after six months of waiting and dithering the first harvest of bell peppers was made. They were starting to rot on the vine but we kept waiting for them to get bigger which they never did.  They are very colourful orange, red and yellow but small and seedy.  We have been peppered with recipes from Heide and Bianca as to what can be done with them.
I also wandered across the road to check out the yellow markers. It seems they are marking plots of land but to what purpose. It must be a study of some kind and older pegs can be seen in the grass with their new yellow tops.

Two large bags - Golf ball size

Pegged

MapLand

Wind Sails

We have taken the council up on its offer of a rubbish heap pickup.  It's a trial phase so I hope it continues, as we have no trailer.  The heap is due to be placed out tomorrow so what else might go out given this chance. How about mold flinging shade sails that absolutely flail in high winds.  I would estimate they have been up for 20 yar.  The new Winter veggie patch is coming along. It has been split into two areas, a sunnier spot and a completely shaded one.

Veggie 1

Veggie 2

Before

after

Foreshore Pshaw

I related the situation at the start of Summer where some community group started brush cutting and left great mounds of cut scrub then walked away as they had run out of money.  I spied two safety vested vagabonds with a grass cutter behaving in a suspiciously councilistic manner.  They had a tape measure for the placement of yellow plastic caps at precisely the right distance.  Grass was removed and yellow caps placed in seemingly random locations on both sides of the foreshore fence.  If anyone has ideas on this please let me know.

yellow placement highlighted

Sun soaked sky sets soon

Blustery Ride

The twice a week ride commitment has continued but we are still only doing the Drysdale circuit so far.  So today was about 14km in an hour's riding.  A lot less people around now although we saw 6 or 7 kids who were meant to be at home schooling.  The schools did have some kids and teachers so I guess they do not have internet access.  The other thing we noticed was one of the cafes selling takeaway meals included meat balls.  Now you are talking.

New Park 

passing pelican

Tricky Trickster played a Trick

We had another go at remote card playing last night and progress is being made as I found that the trickster people have written their game reinstating the video in a Chrome specific version.  That said we had no audio anywhere which is more our own issue as three out of four players had the video link.  In the end we played games in chat mode.  Taking a closer look, my audio was routed to the TV via the laptop docking station. Complications, and I swear at one stage my phone took over the audio from the laptop as I could hear my sound tests through the phone.  I haven't given up on this yet.

1650 map

When I was drawing maps back at MMBW at 1:2500 the first thing you would do is close the outside boundaries. So knowing your outer edges were correct then you could fill in towards the centre knowing everything would fit. I have taken the same approach with this puzzle map as well, get a handle on the frame then fill it in.  I also spent an hour or so up the olive tree again this time the yield was four kilos and there is plenty more. On the density front we have rediscovered sardines, a fishy snack we used to eat before kids. Not sure why kids and sardines don't go.

1800 to go

I need a bigger tub

King Oscar

Olive Ripe

It was one year ago that I climbed into the olive tree for a bit of picking and plucking.  I have started the job again but so far concentrated on the ripe berries only which have yielded just under 2 kilos.  I have had to delay getting the rest while my head regains some skin. Although I could try using a helmet but there's not a lot of room in the tree.  I have never been a fan of olives but when you are growing your own it seems to make a difference.  James and Heide cooked up jars of olives and the one we had also waited a year before I opened it.  They fizzed and sizzled but the taste is better than I remembered.  We are having just a couple with cheese and with some salad.

From this

into this

17° Beach walk

We already had our exercise today but it was very calm almost millpond conditions so we went walking to the Dell and back. We had a towel and decided to sit on the the reading rock for a while.  There was an important biddy with knowledge who informed us that sitting was not allowed and it would be over a $3000 fine and furthermore there have been patrols here from time to time to enforce it.  So does exercising also include resting? They never seem to be patrolling the seat out the front of our place where I have seen a constant stream of people using that seat all day long.  Anyway we took the hint or was it accusation and moved on.  

Corio Pond

City Scene

Ride the Trail

Got out and about on the bikes today.  We varied the route by including a lap around the lake. I have seen freeway photos with out many cars but main street Drysdale always seems to be busy.  The bike paths are busy and the coffee van is doing a roaring trade. The car parks at the train station are packed.  I also noticed at least 6 people mowing the lawn but the green bin was emptied this morning. So why didn't they mow before it was emptied?  I shall have to cogitate further.  The new exercise area has been put to full use. 

Work those arms

The pickup queue

Bicycle City

Video Comms

You name it we have used them all, Messenger, What's App, Hang Outs, Skype, Zoom.  I have spent more time on the phone than off it. Those emoji's are crazy see below.  I finished off hanging the bicycles in the garage and also made a start on the mega map puzzle

Symmetry but not in motion

2000 of em

Asher in a glass